"Just as we have seen in the public sector, consumers enjoy the convenience and power of e-commerce and online transactions. E-commerce is maturing, and even the smaller companies are improving, keeping up with or sometimes surpassing larger, more established companies," said Claes Fornell, ACSI founder and professor at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business. "The e-commerce landscape changes faster than more traditional industries, and the rules can be rewritten by new players or new technologies, like mobile. Disruption will always be a part of e-commerce, but innovation will likely keep the sector near the top in customer satisfaction."

Online retail increases 1.2% to an ACSI score of 82, outperforming the brick-and-mortar retail trade sector (76.6) by a wide margin. Amazon continues to the lead the industry (and tops all measured e-commerce companies in this month's Index) despite a 1% drop to 85. The "all others" category, which is an aggregate of e-retailers and other companies not individually measured, jumps 3% to 82. The "all others" category contains many e-retail websites that also have a brick-and-mortar presence.

"Brick-and-mortar retailers are not conceding the Internet to online natives such as Amazon," said Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee. "They are investing heavily resources in providing a better experience for their customers, providing more evidence that competition is good for the consumer."